In the process of shipping an item from one location to another, a protective packaging material is typically placed in the shipping container to fill any voids and/or to cushion the item during the shipping process. Some commonly used protective packaging materials are plastic foam peanuts and plastic bubble pack. While these conventional plastic materials seem to perform adequately as cushioning products, they are not without disadvantages. Perhaps the most serious drawback of plastic bubble wrap and/or plastic foam peanuts is their effect on our environment. Quite simply, these plastic packaging materials are not biodegradable and thus they cannot avoid further multiplying our planet's already critical waste disposal problems. The non-biodegradability of these packaging materials has become increasingly important in light of many industries adopting more progressive policies in terms of environmental responsibility.
The foregoing and other disadvantages of conventional plastic packaging materials have made paper protective packaging material a very popular alternative. Paper is biodegradable, recyclable and renewable; making it an environmentally responsible choice for conscientious companies.
While paper in sheet form could possibly be used as a protective packaging material, it is usually preferable to convert the sheets of paper into a relatively low density pad-like cushioning dunnage product. This conversion may be accomplished by a cushioning conversion machine, such as that disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,889. The therein disclosed cushioning conversion machine converts sheet-like stock material, such as paper in multi-ply form, into relatively low density pads. Specifically, the machine converts this stock material into a continuous unconnected strip having lateral pillow-like portions separated by a thin central band. This strip is coined along its central band to form a coined strip which is cut into sections, or pads, of a desired length. The stock material preferably consists of three superimposed webs or layers of biodegradable, recyclable and reusable thirty-pound Kraft paper rolled onto a hollow cylindrical tube. A thirty-inch wide roll of this paper, which is approximately 450 feet long, will weigh about 35 pounds and will provide cushioning equal to approximately four fifteen cubic foot bags of plastic foam peanuts while at the same time requiring less than one-thirtieth the storage space.
As shown in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 08/109,124 and 08/155,931, a cushioning conversion machine may be situated below the work platform of a dispensing table. In such an arrangement, the final outlet of the machine (i.e., the exit opening of the machine from which dunnage product is dispensed, could be aligned with an opening in the table's work platform. In this manner, the cushioning product, or pad, would be deposited on the work platform during operation of the machine. Consequently, a packaging person could conveniently grab the pad and place it in a shipping box to fill any voids and/or to cushion an item in the shipping box.
To facilitate loading and/or maintenance of the machine, provision has been made for allowing the machine to be moved from underneath the table, an example of this being shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/155,931. Depending on a given application, the machine may have to be withdrawn from the side, front or rear of the table. Heretofore, separate systems were devised for these different applications, with a corresponding number of parts lists and assembly procedures.